Ginger (Zingiber officinale Rosc.) belongs to
family Zingiberaceae is well known important spice crop of the world. Ginger
production industry in Sri Lanka is facing land limitations for cultivation
expanding. Apart from land availability low organic matter content in the existing
fields also creating production barriers. The experiment as initiated in 2017
focusing these two issues. The experiment was conducted in Central Research
Station, Matale. Two poly bags sizes were used. Two rhizome amounts were
selected as planting materials weighing 50g and 100g. According to the results of the experiment;
plant height, number of tillers and yield were higher in the 50kg poly bag unit
contained 50 kg mixture of potting mixture formulated using decomposed cow
dung, coir dust, top soil and sand in 1:1:1:1 ratio. An also 100g of rhizome
amount was given higher growth than 50g as a comparison.

Quick wilt or foot rot is a major disease in black
pepper (Piper nigrum L.). The known causal organism of the disease is Phytophthora
capsici fungus.
The specie is a well-known soil borne plant pathogen. Different chemical
combinations are recommended for controlling quick wilt in pepper growing areas
of Sri Lanka. The common chemical application is Redoxyl (64% Mancozeb and 8%
Metalaxyl). Chemical application is effective on controlling the disease.
However, repeated application may require with outbreaks. The experiment was
done to find a sustainable alternative for managing quick wilt disease. Trichoderma
asperellum is well known antagonist fungal specie to soil borne fungal pathogens
like P.
capsici. In the
experiment inoculation of T. asperellum with cattle manure and incorporate the mixture
with potting media were done. Then the treated sample compared with different
experimental treatment combinations. According to the observations recorded
throughout the two period of experiment timeline, T. asperellum inoculated samples has
shown lower occurrence of quick wilt. Re-emergence of disease also suppressed
significantly. Therefore, the experiment concluded that use of T.
asperellum inoculated cattle manure is a possible sustainable solution for quick
wilt.

Damage of Coffee Berry Borer (Hypothenemus
hampei Ferrari) is the major pest specie of coffee cultivation all around
the globe. The insect belongs to order Coleoptera and family Curculionidae.

The experiment was carried out at
Central Research Station on June to October, 2017 and focused on identification
of infestation on newly released variety “Lak Parakum”. Then infestation
compared with selected cultivars namely Catimor, HDT (Arabica cultivars) and
IMY, CCI, BS5 (Robusta cultivars). Normally, Arabica cultivars are more
susceptible to the infestation than Robusta cultivars. According to this study,
most susceptible cultivar is HDT than Lak Parakum variety. It is also higher than Robusta cultivars. The
mean infestation percentage of HDT is 12.88%. The population of Coffee Berry
Borer in Arabica cultivars is higher compared to Robusta cultivars.

Nutmeg(Myristica fragrans) is an
important Export Agricultural Crop (EAC) grown in Sri Lanka. Nutmeg Leaf Fall
Disease (NLFD) is one of the economically important disease reported to the
nutmeg cultivations in Sri Lanka. Colletotrichum gloeosporioides and Neofusicoccum spp were identified as causal organisms of the
disease.

Nutmeg has cultivated as a mix crop in Kandyan home
gardens in Sri Lanka along with fruit and spice crops. some of these fruit
plants are infected with Anthracnose, stem end rot which is caused by same
pathogen of NLFD (Colletotrichum
gloeosporioides). Therefore, this
study was conducted for assessment of cross infection potential between C.
gloeosporioides isolated from nutmeg and selected diseased fruit crops such
as avocado, mango, and papaya.

According the results, it is revealed that fungal
strains isolated from above fruit crops have cross infection potential and the
potential to cause disease to the nutmeg seedlings is more similar and avocado,
mango and papaya fruit crops are alternative hosts for the nutmeg leaf fall
disease and field sanitation of above fruit plants must be recommended as an
additional measure, where nutmeg and these crops are grown together to avoid
spreading of NLFD as a long-term disease management strategy.

Sri Lanka has a very diverse gene
pool of Black Pepper including wild types. Therefore, Sri Lanka can be
considered as a sub centre of origin of Black Pepper and has an enormous
potential to improve the crop quality.

The land area available for pepper
cultivation in traditional areas is limiting day by day and promoting pepper
cultivation in non-traditional areas is inevitable. The non-traditional areas
predominantly come from the intermediate mid and low country where the rainfall
is the limiting factor.

Therefore, the available pepper
germplasm in Sri Lanka need to be characterized properly to identify pepper
accessions with good agronomic characteristics such as high yield, tolerance to
biotic and abiotic stresses. These accessions can be used to develop commercial
varieties with good agronomic traits. Department
of Export Agriculture (DEA) has launched many crop developments programmes in
the past, including germplasm collection and evaluation. The first germplasm
collection and selection programme has identified ten black pepper varieties
with high yield and oil content and they were released to the farmers as PNM 1as
a composite of GK-49, MB-12,
MW-18,MW21, TG-7,IW-5, KW-30, KW-32, KW-33 and MN-1 varieties.

This
experiment was carried out with specific objectives to evaluate the performance
of the identified black pepper varieties at different agro-climatic regions.

This study has shown that Panniyur-1
and UD-21 performed well in all locations showing horizontal adaptability. They
were also better in field establishment. The yield data revealed that four
varieties under evaluation in Middeniya experiment: KWW-12, UD-21, MB-12 and
Wasanagama were performing better, yielding 4796.7, 4460.0, 3622.0 and 3363.3
grams of black pepper per vine respectively. The yield data from Matale
experiment revealed that, UD-21, Panniyur-1 and KWW-10 varieties were the best
cultivars in that side giving more than two kilos of dry pepper per vine per
year. In Nillambe experiment they were the Panniyur-1, DM-7, Wasanagama and
KWW-12 varieties that yielded 1937.3, 1887.1, 1752.0,1477.9 grams of black
pepper per vine per year respectively. The varieties; UD-21, MB-12 was
performing well in both Middeniya and Matale. KWW-12 was performing extremely
well in Middeniya experimental plot. Hence KWW-12, UD-21 and MB -12 varieties can be
highly suitable variety to Middeniya area.

EFFECT
OF BIOFILMS and potting media ON
GROWTH OF PEPPER (Piper nigrum L) AT NURSERY STAGE

Nursery management practices are one
of the important agronomic practices as poor field establishment is highly
associated with the vigour of the initial planting material consequently the
yield. Application of biofilm technology has a potential to improve the initial
vigour of pepper rooted cuttings.

Therefore, in this study, a locally
available biofilm forming product in combination with different potting
mixtures were tested to find out the effectiveness at nursery stage of pepper
rooted cuttings. Three mixtures of potting media namely;1:1:1:1 (standard),
1:2:1:1 and 1:3:1:1 of each component representing river sand: top soil: cattle
manure and coir dust respectively were tested in combination with two biofilm
solution levels, i.e. 40 ml of 0.25 ml / L concentrated biofilm liquid were
used for one nursery pepper plant in once a month and twice a month
respectively and each experiment treatment combinations with three replicates.

As per the results alternative
potting media containing more top soil appeared to be suitable and
effectiveness of biofilm application on growth performances of pepper rooted
cutting during nursery stage was also appeared. However, the associated combine
effect with biofilm could not be isolated due to the nature of experimental
design in this study. Therefore, it is recommended to repeat the experiment
with biofilm for black pepper rooted cutting in factorial experimental design.

In Sri Lanka immature
harvesting of black pepper is commonly practiced. Immature berries are the best
starting material for oil and oleoresin extraction. Immature pepper harvesting
has a huge negative impact on mature pepper industry. In the event of fully
matured pepper berry harvesting also a light berry component (< 450 g/L) is
recorded during processing which can be identified through gravity separation. This
low bulk density pepper berries can be used for extraction of oil and
oleoresin.

The study was focused to quantification
the heavy berries and light berries yield component at the time of mature
pepper harvest in farmer level and determination of oil, oleoresin and piperin
content of different grades of three pepper varieties. The Pepper samples were
collected from Central Research Station – Matale and Sub Research Station Nillamba.
Compared Black pepper varieties/cultivars are Paniyur – 1, TG 7 and UD21. The highest light berry percentage (52%) was observed in Paniyur – 1 (TG7, 22% and UD21, 6%). The highest value of bulk density was shown in
grade 1 in all three selections. Grade 1 is more suitable for the black pepper
production. It is nearly 50 % of the harvest. Rest of the production in harvest
is low bulk density pepper corn component (Grade 2, Grade 3 and Grade 4). The
oil, oleoresin and piperin percentages were comparatively higher in grade 2
(< 450 g/L) in all varieties at the time of mature pepper harvest in farmer
level. This low bulk density pepper corn can be used for extraction of oil and
oleoresin. Furthermore, Variety pannuyr-1 is more suitable for oleoresin extraction
and variety TG 7 is suitable for piperin extraction. According to this result
can be recommended to industry; gravity separation is essential processing step
to do to get low bulk density yield component for extraction as well as to
reduce immature pepper harvesting.

COMPARISON OF CHEMICAL
QUALITIES OF IMPORTED INDIAN AND LOCAL TURMERIC SAMPLES

I.V.A.D.C.S.
INDURUWA, K. RAJKUMARand V.P.N. PRASADI

Annual turmeric requirement of Sri Lanka is around 6,800 MT. Sri Lanka
imported 4,958 MT of turmeric in 2017 and domestic turmeric production is 1866
MT in the same year. Sri Lanka is one of the major turmeric import country in
Asia and mainly imported from India.

Sri Lankan consumers prefer Indian Turmeric than locally grown turmeric
due to its attractive light-yellow colour. Therefore, this research was
conducted to compare chemical characteristics of local and imported Indian
turmeric samples. Six Indian turmeric samples collected from whole sale market,
Colombo and six local turmeric samples collected from Matale were analysed.
Curcumin content, volatile oil content, oleoresin content, total ash content
and acid insoluble ash content were determined according to AOAC (Association
of Official Analytical Chemists) Standard methods. Significantly higher curcumin
content was found in Sri Lankan turmeric samples (4.48%) whereas the Indian
samples were contained low curcumin values (2.42%). Total ash content of Sri Lankan turmeric samples
(8.27%) is significantly higher than Indian samples (7.9%). There is no significant
difference in oil, oleoresin and acid insoluble ash content between Sri Lankan
and Indian turmeric samples. Sri Lankan turmeric may provide more health
benefits compared to Indian turmeric since it contains higher curcumin content.

Source: ASEAC 2017 proceedings

VARIATION IN GROWTH AND YIELD
CHARACTERISTICS OF GINGER (Zingiberofficinale Rosc.) UNDER DIFFERENT IRRIGATION INTERVALS

H.M.P.A. SUBASINGHE and S.G.M.D.L. SENEVIRATHNE

Ginger (Zingiber officinale Rosc.) is a perennial plant but, grown as a short duration crop for approximately 8 months. The average yield of the crop has varied widely among farmers due to different management practices. Farmers are mostly not well-aware on the importance of timely irrigation and continuous moisture retention in ginger cultivation. Therefore, this study was carried out to analyse the impact of soil moisture on different growth and yield parameters of ginger under supplementary irrigation. The local ginger variety was used and different irrigation treatments i.e. 5, 10, 15 and 20 days irrigation intervals (DII) and control (no irrigation) were imposed while conducting other recommended agronomic practices. The meteorological, micro-meteorological and different biometric data were recorded accordingly. The highest level of moisture and the lowest canopy temperature were observed with 5 DII and a gradual soil moisture reduction was observed with the increasing irrigation interval. Soil moisture in control plots showed a high fluctuation with late inter-monsoon and early southwest monsoon rains and exceeded that of the 5 DII plots in some weeks. The lowest mean number of days for germination and the highest germination percentage were reported with 5 DII. However, the number of roots, total root length and fresh and dry weight of normal roots varied among different treatments while water storing roots showed better performances in 5 DII. Fresh and dry weights of above and below ground parts reached the highest in 5 DII after 5 months of sowing (MOS). After 6 MOS, ginger with 5 DII showed better results for all attributes of plant height, number of pseudo-stems, number of leaves, leaf area and rhizome weight. The final rhizome yield was also the highest in 5DII. Hence, soil moisture is a vital factor for almost all growth parameters of ginger and ultimately its rhizome yield. Source: ASEAC 2017 proceedings.

Obtaining Assistance for Development of Post Harvest Facilities and Equipments for EAC Who can apply:Farmer Organizations of EAC, Estates or large scale EAC growers Post-harvest advisory service unit (PHASU) was established in 1998 to upgrade the quality of export agricultural

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